Can we sue our way out of this mess?
Even casual readers of this blog are familiar with the disheartening numbers. Adjusting for regional wage differences, California spends $2,856 per student less than the national average, ranking us 47th among states, and some $6,000 less than New York. This translates into real resource differences, as California ranks 49th in teacher-student ratios, 49th in guidance counselors, and 50th in librarians. And although we could quibble about causality, it can’t be a coincidence that children in our educational-resource-deprived fourth grades rank 47th in the nation in reading on the NAEP, while eighth graders come in 46th in math. Not only is California’s school finance system insufficient to meet the needs of our children, it is irrational and completely disconnected from the state’s standards-and-